Qualla: EastEnders https://qualla.com/eastenders en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: EastEnders https://qualla.com/eastenders EastEnders: Introduction https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit Matt Pearson, CC BY 2.0. Thirty million people watched the Christmas Day episode in 1986. That is, very nearly, half the population of the United Kingdom at the time. They were watching Den Watts, the landlord of the Queen Victoria pub in fictional Albert Square, hand divorce papers to his wife Angie - a scene that has been replayed at every retrospective for the last forty years and remains the single most-watched episode of any drama in British television history. EastEnders launched on the BBC on 19 February 1985, the brainchild of producer Julia Smith and script editor Tony Holland, and it was supposed to be the BBC's answer to Coronation Street. Within eight months it was the most popular show in Britain. Forty years later it is still on, broadcasting four nights a week from a permanent outdoor set in Hertfordshire that has been demolished and rebuilt around the same fictional square.

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Image: Matt Pearson | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full EastEnders: The Square that Never Was https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO // WORLD // TRAVEL ], CC BY 2.0. Albert Square does not exist. It was invented by Smith and Holland, who wanted a fictional Victorian terrace in a fictional borough they called Walford - a portmanteau of Walthamstow and Stratford. The design of the square itself was modelled on Fassett Square in Dalston, a real ...

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Image: UggBoy♥UggGirl [ PHOTO // WORLD // TRAVEL ] | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-the-square-that-never-was.mp3 0:06 2 full EastEnders: Filmed in a Field https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit Mark Towning from London, England, CC BY 2.0. The actual set has been built and rebuilt on an open lot at the BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire - twelve miles north-west of the East End it depicts. The location was chosen because the BBC already owned the studio complex, and because filming a soap opera contin...

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Image: Mark Towning from London, England | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-filmed-in-a-field.mp3 0:06 3 full EastEnders: The Families https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit Meena, CC0. Tony Holland was from a large East End family, and he wanted his soap built around the idea of strong, complicated, brawling families. The Beales and the Fowlers were there from the very first episode in 1985. The Watts - Den and Angie and their adopted daughter Sharon - dominate...

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Image: Meena | CC0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-the-families.mp3 0:06 4 full EastEnders: Drumroll, Drumroll https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit Kelvin 101, CC BY-SA 4.0. The theme tune is one of the most recognisable in British television - a brassy, slightly minor-key, four-note hook composed by Simon May, followed by a swirling aerial shot of the Thames that pans across the East End of London at a thousand feet. The original title sequence was ...

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Image: Kelvin 101 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-drumroll-drumroll.mp3 0:06 5 full EastEnders: Why It Persists https://qualla.com/eastenders/ Photo credit AnemoneProjectors, CC BY-SA 4.0. British soaps in 2026 are not what they were in 1986. Audiences have fragmented, streaming has cannibalised appointment television, viewing figures have collapsed across the board. EastEnders no longer pulls thirty million; it pulls, on a good night, around three. But it is still...

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Image: AnemoneProjectors | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/eastenders-wp/gcpv-eastenders-why-it-persists.mp3 0:06 6 full